Tennent's Scottish Cup Round 4

New Douglas Park, Hamilton,

4th February 2006

Report by Gilbert Mowat

Accies and Alloa Athletic will have to fight it out again on Tuesday night before we will know who will face the winner of the Dundee against Airdrie United replay in the quarter finals. This was a disappointing match in which Accies had the huge majority of the possession but just didn't have that moment of inspiration to unlock the packed Alloa defence.

Accies manager Billy Reid made a couple of changes to the team that drew with Clyde 7 days earlier. Dave McEwan replaced Raymond Jellema in goals, while Paul McMullan made way for Brian Wake, who made his debut up front. The opening minutes of the game contained two of the key events of the entire match. With just 4 minutes on the clock, Brian Carrigan went into a 50/50 challenge with an Alloa player that was so fierce it's a wonder that the ball survived. Carrots limped about for a minute or two but had to be replaced by James McArthur. It emerged later that Carrigan had suffered medial ligament damage, so he must be a major doubt for Tuesday's replay. Just a couple of minutes later, the Wasps ventured up the park for what turned out to be their best chance of the game. The ball was cut back from the byeline but Dave McEwan did well to save the shot from 12 yards.

Accies came right back into things and they began to pepper the Alloa goal with efforts that just missed the target. First of all, some neat work by Brian Wake gave Juanjo a chance but his shot flew over the top. Within the next few minutes, Brian Wake and James McArthur (twice) had attempts on goal but were unable to make James Evans earn his pay with their efforts. Accies continued to have huge amounts of possession towards the interval but lacked the inspiration required to make the breakthrough. The best efforts came from Juanjo, who shot over the top after being set up by Mark Gilhaney and Scott Tunbridge and then Stuart Balmer fired just wide of goal from the edge of the area. Apart from that early effort, Alloa had been on the defensive for the bulk of the half.

At the break, it was disappointing Accies were not ahead but they had enjoyed the majority of the ball. The key incident of the early stages of the second half came when Alloa goalkeeper James Evan was injured when making a clearance. After a delay of several minutes, he was eventually carried off on a stretcher to be replaced by 18 year old substitute Paul Ferguson, who made his first appearance for the first team. Accies continued where they left off at the break, with tons of the ball but not much in the way of inspiration. Mark Gilhaney was always a threat to Alloa on the left wing however, but decent deliveries from the wing were being met by the packed Alloa defence.

Billy Reid made a chance after the hour, with debutant Brian Wake being replaced by Paddy Keogh, who had been absent through injury for several weeks. Accies did have more efforts on goal in the second half, but the teenage goalkeeper wasn't really stretched by the Accies attack. Pat Keogh had a good header that went just over the top and Juanjo and James McArthur all had a go, but there was never a time when a goal looked likely.

Alloa made a tactical change near the end and put more men forward in an attempt to win the game. They came close on a couple of occasions too and Dave McEwan had to be on his toes to save a couple of shots. However, despite their workrate it would have been almost criminal if they had won the game as they were second best to Accies in almost every department. The referee angered the Accies management by only adding five extra minutes at the end, but you got the impression that both teams could have kept playing until Tuesday without a goal being scored.

Best for Accies were Mark McLaughlin at the back, Mark Gilhaney on the left wing and Alex neil in the heart of midfield. Neil won the match sponsor's award but did not look too impressed when he received his champagne at full time. The teams will now meet again at Alloa on Tuesday, with the huge incentive of a quarter final against Dundee or Airdrie United awaiting the winner.

After the match, Alloa manager Allan Maitland said, "I think the truth of the matter is that we probably didn't do enough to win the game. We set ourselves up to be hard to beat in the knowledge that we would always get a chance or maybe a couple of chances in the game. I think we were hard to beat and that in itself makes us worthy of another opportunity. Another crack at it is a fair result for a really hard days work by the team. I think the players workrate was magnificent; to restrict Hamilton Accies to the number of chances they had (which don't spring to mind I must say), just shows you how well we defended. Let's not kid ourselves on, defending has been a big issue for our club this year. So it speaks volumes for the players concentration and application. I think we could have knicked it and we had the best chance of the game through Ross Hamilton in the first half and at the end, we were trying to win it and pushed the players further up the park. We had a couple of corners in a row and at that stage anything could have happened. Our goalkeeper James Evans has done his knee in; it looks like it could be ligament problems so that gives us huge problems for Tuesday's replay. We're going to see if we can get some sort of ruling from the SFA to see if we can get somebody else in, but if young Paul has to play then so be it."

Accies boss Billy Reid was less impressed. "It was frustrating to be honest. We passed the ball not too badly at times but it was a stop-start game right from the off. Alloa had probably the best chance of the game in the first half but Dave McEwan made a great save. I thought we were a wee bit unfortunate in front of goal in the first half; we had one or two good chances but couldn't put one away. We didn't get the break of the ball. We started the second half pretty well too but we got nervous and very tense. The crowd started to get on the players backs - we've seen it all before. But we're still there and have another chance. We know we can play better than that, there's no question about it. I was disappointed that we didn't have too many shots on goal - you've got to have strikes on goal which we didn't do enough of. We didn't put enough balls into the box to put the young goalie under pressure, but we're still in the hat. Alloa probably were major underdogs but it's 0-0 and we'll go again. It will be a more difficult task but it's one we're capable of winning. Mark Gilhaney did great but was unfortunate in front of goal a couple of times but he put a lot of balls into the box. On another day somebody would get on the end of them but all credit to Alloa, they defended well with a big strong back 4 and they got the breaks and they deserved the draw. Brian Carrigan has hurt his medial ligament in that strong tackle and it just sums up our season so far. It's really frustrating because he's looked really good in the last few weeks. He's one that does take shots on goal; he's one that pulls the trigger but it wasn't to be. Juanjo up front is probably short of match practice but he'll do alright for us in the coming weeks. Brian Wake did OK, he takes the ball in well and had a couple of wee half chances early on that he could have taken but he probably tired so we took a chance and put Paddy on for his physical presence and he almost scored with a header at the end but it wasn't to be today and it was frustrating. We live to fight another day."

Alex Neil of Accies won the sponsor's man of the match award. here's Arthur Lynch's picture of Alex receiving the bottle of champagne from Iain McPhie representing the sponsors

Hamilton: McEwan, Robertson, Thomson, McLaughlin, Balmer, Juanjo, Neil, Gilhaney, Tunbridge, Wake (Keogh 64), Carrigan (McArthur 8). Subs Not Used: Ferguson, Elebert, Jellema.

Booked: McArthur.

Alloa: Evans (Ferguson 57), Bolochoweckjy (Nicolson 12), Forest, McColligan, Ovenstone, Greenhills, Townsley, Learmonth (Muir 81), Stevenson, Ross Hamilton, Sloan. Subs Not Used: Mortimer, Stuart.

Booked: Sloan, Ross Hamilton.

Att: 1,866

Ref: S Conroy

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